


the promises we make in the dark

by overtheanvilwestretch



Series: they say absence makes the heart grow fonder [1]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Brief mentions of the rest of the party, But this is mostly just vaguely fluffy smut, Byeler - Freeform, M/M, home from college
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2019-02-23 12:20:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13189965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/overtheanvilwestretch/pseuds/overtheanvilwestretch
Summary: “Don’t,” he started, breath hitching slightly, “Don’t say things like that to me. Not unless you mean them.”Will wanted to lean back, just a little, just enough so that their bodies could be flush against each other. But he needed to know that Mike wasn’t doing what he’d always done: saying something in an effort to spare Will’s feelings. Saying something to make him feel better."I love you" couldn’t be one of those things.---Or: After a sudden confession during their first semester in college seemingly drives them apart, how a holiday break back in Hawkins brings two boys back together.





	the promises we make in the dark

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic in years (and definitely my first foray into the Stranger Things/Byeler fandom) so please be gentle with me! Also, sorry if things get a little confusing, I'm usually not a third person omniscient kinda gal but I decided to take a chance this time around. Feedback is always appreciated and love you all!

“Don’t,” he started, breath hitching slightly, “Don’t say things like that to me. Not unless you mean them.”

Will and Mike have never argued, have always been in the same side of every disagreement: with other members of the party, their parents. 

But in that moment, Will wanted nothing more than to scream at his best friend. To tell him this wasn’t a game. That this couldn’t be a game to him or he swore his heart might actually stop. He couldn’t take it if it wasn’t real, not after all this time hoping.

Will’s arms were crossed as he looked out the window of his childhood bedroom. There was snow on the ground in Hawkins, a bright contrast to the dark sky. It’d been a while since he stood in that room with Mike, but it still felt the same. The shag carpet still burrowed it’s way between his toes, the same thickness hung in the air of the things Will felt for the boy behind him but could never say.

“Will I-“ he could feel Mike moving behind him, had always been able to track his movements in a room without so much as looking at him. He could feel his body heat against his back, close but not nearly close enough, “I’ve never said anything to you I didn’t mean.”

Will wanted to lean back, just a little, just enough so that their bodies could be flush against each other. But he needed to know that Mike wasn’t doing what he’d always done, saying something in an effort to spare Will’s feelings. Something to make him feel better.

“I love you” couldn’t be one of those things.

Mike wanted to touch him, to bridge the gap between their two bodies, and so he did. He gently placed one hand on Will’s waist and waited. For him to say something. For him to pull away. 

“All those months and you said nothing.” Maybe it was fate, maybe it was a force beyond his control, but he melted a little into the boy -the man now- behind him. “You didn’t write me back, didn’t call. I thought-“ his voice caught in his throat, “I had lost my best friend.”

The first semester of college had been a miserable one for Will. It was the longest period of time he’d ever been without his best friend, the furthest he’d ever been away from home. He was lonely in Chicago, even though he and Jonathan shared a studio apartment not too far from campus.

He had loved his studies, loved spending so much time honing his craft in art school. But things weren’t settling like he had always imagined they would. And that had everything to do with how he’d left things with Mike.

“I didn’t know what to say.” 

It was a weak response. It sounded weak to Mike even as he said it, but he couldn’t find anything better, anything stronger. He couldn’t find words that Will deserved to hear after all this time.

When they moved away, the two had agreed to call each other every Sunday at the very least. Even said they’d send snail mail during the weekdays, just for the nostalgia of it all. And they’d done that faithfully for the first few weeks of the semester. Mike would catch Will up on all of the new friends he was making at school, what classes he was taking (and which ones he was absolutely hating, of course) and what girls lived in his dorm that’d caught his attention.

They were best friends and talking about what best friends talked about, but Will hung up each week feeling more miserable than the week before.

He didn’t want to hear about girls or classes or new friends. The things he wanted to hear were the things neither of them were permitted to say aloud, even if Mike miraculously carried the same feelings that he did.

But he did his best to pretend, for both their sakes. He talked up the people he had grown to know, turned them into close friends rather than simply acquaintances. And he avoided talks of romance all together.

Even in Chicago, surrounded by people considerably more open minded and progressive than the ones in his hometown, Will felt isolated. It was a feeling that gnawed at him, left him feeling desperate, aching. So he did the only thing he could think to do, the thing he’d wanted to do since they were freshmen in high school: he confessed.

Maybe Will expected a seismic shift in the universe once he’d sent the letter that told Mike how he felt, how he’d always felt, about him. Maybe he expected closure, rejection even. Anything but what he got. Silence.

The week he sent it, he didn’t hear from Mike on that Sunday. It was the first time he’d ever missed their call. And even though he knew it was hopeless, Will sat by their apartment phone each week at the same time, waiting. Eventually, he knew better than to hope anymore. 

“You didn’t know what to say?” Will’s voice was incredulous. It bordered on a shriek that he couldn’t find the wherewithal to even be ashamed about. He stepped forward and away from his touch in order to turn and face Mike. There was about a foot of space between them now, but he swore he could still feel where his hand was on his waist. Almost like it was still there. “You had weeks, months even, to come up with something to say!”

Mike Wheeler was rarely at a loss for words. But then after the letter, and in the moment standing in front of WIll, he struggled for a response.

“I meant it when I said I loved you, Will. I loved you then, too, even when I didn’t know what it meant yet.”

Will could feel his resolve weakening the longer he stood in Mike’s presence, holding that all too earnest expression on his face. The kid was always a little too expressive, too emotionally open, for Will to know what to do with.

“And you know now?” He meant for it to come out with a little more bite than it did. It ends up sounding broken, but hopeful.

Mike stepped into his space slowly, gently. As gentle as he’d always been when it came to his best friend. Will tried to step backwards, to get some space and at least try and think clearly, but found himself against the wall. He didn’t want to run, not really, not anymore, but he couldn’t help but fear what this could all mean. For him. For them.

Mike was still just tall enough that Will had to tilt his head up to meet his eyes.

“Will, I know. I know what it means, what I want,” he placed both of his hand on his face, his thumbs softly caressing the apples of his cheeks. “And I’m sorry it took me so long to say it.”

Neither of them know who does it, but soon the gap between them is closed, their bodies pressed firmly against one another. Their lips slot together in what can only be described as desperation. Or at least that’s what Will would call it. He was desperate for Mike and had been for some time. And it was almost unfathomable to him that his best friend would respond with as much vigor as he had in his fantasies.

His arms snaked around to the back of Mike’s neck and tangled in the hairs at the nape of it. It’d grown since the last time they saw each other, back at the end of summer, and he liked it. Liked having something to grab onto.

“Michael.” Will broke away, breathing heavily. Mike opened his eyes slowly, as though he didn’t want the moment to end. Will’s heart swelled just a little at the thought. “What are we doing? What’s going on?”

“I want you,” he said softly, simply, and leaned in to place another, much less feverish kiss on his lips. “I want to spend every second I can, as close as I can, with you and to you before this break is over,” he emphasized his points with kisses along Will’s jawline and down his neck.

Will didn’t want to think about the experience that Mike had gained since going away to school, about the girls that he’d been with, but his lips felt too good for this to be unrehearsed. And that made him feel uneasy.

“You can’t just kill time with me, Mike, okay?” Will managed to whisper, “I won’t do this if you’re going to go back to school and pretend nothing happened here.”

He had to say it, otherwise this whole thing would leave him more wrecked than not hearing from him after the letter did. Knowing what it felt like to touch and be touched by him and never being able to feel it again would almost certainly ruin him, he thought.

Mike pulled back to look at him again, this time with his brows furrowed like he used to do when he was thinking especially hard during a campaign, “I could never just ‘kill time’ with you. Nothing outside of this matters to me, okay? Just me and you. Right now. In three weeks. A month. A year. This is it.”

And maybe he didn’t know what he was saying, didn’t quite understand how big what he was promising was, but it was enough for Will in that moment. He wanted whatever he could take from him, for as long as he could take it.

Suddenly the empty house seemed like a promise of something magical. 

“Show me then,” Will said and bit his lip, feeling inexplicably shy after saying something so bold. He had never considered himself bold. He’d never thought of himself as brave, always saved that label for Mike.

Mike wasted no time. He slid his hand down his arm slowly, intertwined their fingers together and pulled him towards the bed. It was the same twin sized frame Will’d had since they were kids, but it was perfect. 

Will slid back so that he could sit against the headboard and Mike moved over him so that their legs were intertwined. He gingerly brushed a stray hair back from Will’s face.

“Tell me what you want. I’ll give you anything.” 

It was another bold promise, if only because Mike had no idea how much Will wanted from him. Outside of that room and that moment, he wanted to hold his hand and go on dates and buy a house and raise a family together. He wanted vacations and two dogs they’d rescued from a local shelter and a Jeep that they used to go camping. He wanted everything with that boy.

Will closed his eyes and opened his lips just barely, “Kiss me. Right now I want you to kiss me.”

And he did. God, he did, his tongue languorously worked its way into his mouth, urging a sound that could only be described as a whimper to escape from the boy beneath him.

“Can we take this off?” Mike asked, as his fingers played at the hem of Will’s shirt. He nodded, lifted his arms above his head so that they could make quick work of it. Suddenly Will wanted everything gone. He wanted nothing left between them. Not secrets, not silence, not clothes. 

He told him so and the two unbuttoned Mike’s shirt faster than either thought possible. They slid down so that they were parallel to one another and their bodies flush together. Their bare skin together felt like nothing Will had ever experienced before. It was more than anything we could have dreamed about (and God had he dreamed about this). 

Mike allowed a huff of surprise to escape his lips as Will’s lithe body rose just a bit to increase the friction between the two of them. He had more experience than his best friend, he knew that much from a life of near-complete romantic disclosure, but even he had never felt anything like this before. He’d never felt anything this intensely, not a physical connection to another person like this and certainly not an emotional one.

He felt like he would give Will anything he wanted in that moment. He would pour all of his love into him for all of the ways he had cared for Mike in the past: pushing him to apply to (and eventually attend) an Ivy, encouraging his love of storytelling with his constant praise of his elaborate D&D campaigns, letting him cry tears of both joy and sadness on his shoulder the day his parents finally announced their divorce- everything. He wanted this boy to understand all of the ways he’d ever saved him. He didn’t want him to ever doubt again how much this relationship meant to him, especially now that there were no barriers.

He hadn’t called or written Will back because the confession had stirred something in him that he’d been trying to tamp down for months, years maybe. The distance had done something to Mike too, and he had done everything he could to keep it from showing. He had stretched the truth a little bit about how many girls he’d been hooking up with (he had made it to second base with this sophomore named Holly Baxter after a couple jello shots at a house party during the first week, but that was the extent of that little romance), and about how much he loved his professors (he did like studying psychology at Brown, that part was true, but some of his professors were seriously pretentious dickwads), he’d made it sound like he was adjusting perfectly. 

But he felt something gnawing at him the longer he went without Will, a feeling he couldn’t manage when he thought about Dustin or Lucas or Max or even El.

And the night he received the letter, when he came after just barely touching himself, at the thought of Will writing, “I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything. I pray that you feel the same way, even though if you don’t, I will never stop loving you”, he didn’t have to wonder anymore what any of it meant.

“More,” Will whispered out, “Mike, more.”

Mike didn’t have to ask more of what. He thought he would have known even if he and Will hadn’t always somehow known what the other needed before they could even think to ask. He grinded down into Will a little more aggressively and could feel that underneath his jeans he was just as hard and Mike was. 

Will slid both of his hand into the back pockets of Mike’s jeans and pulled him down towards him. Mike smirked against his lips, “I never would have taken you for the aggressive type, Byers. I like it.”

“You want aggressive, Wheeler?” Will allowed a half smiled to play at his lips as he wrapped one leg behind Mike’s and flipped them over in one fluid motion. Mike laughed lightly as Will straddled him and pinned his hands against the pillows. He knew that Mike could get out of this position if he wanted to. But if the way his hardness was pressed into his inner thigh was any indication, he was no more interested in getting out of it than Will was.

He bent down to kiss him again, still not tiring of how Mike’s lips felt moving against his own. He would be content to do just this forever, but with the way Mike looked below him, red-faced and breathing heavily, he didn’t think that would be the best use of their time together. Mike wrapped an arm around his back and gently rolled them so that they were side by side, facing each other.

“Can I-” Mike started, as he looked down between their bodies before making eye contact again, “Can I touch you?”

Will couldn’t nod quickly enough.

Mike’s hand felt surprisingly soft as it slid down his stomach to where his boxer briefs met the waist of his pants. He quickly undid the button before making his way to the place Will wanted it the most. He gasped as Mike wrapped his hand around his dick. Mike searched his face for reactions, tried to gauge what he could do to make Will feel good.

He pulled his hand out quickly and Will’s eyes shot open, “No don’t stop-”

He was silenced by the image of Mike licking his hand and sliding it back into his pants, this time moving his hand in almost perfect sync with the rhythm that leg he’d slid between Will’s thighs was currently rubbing against him.

“Mike,” Will gulped, “I’m-I’m gonna come soon.” 

He wanted to hold off, to make this last as long as possible. But it just wasn’t possible, not when Mike’s hand felt so good and his breath was hot against his neck and he was whispering back, “Please come for me. Right now. You’re so beautiful. We’ll come together, please Will, just come for me-”

As they finished together, they both gasped out each other’s names, like another of the promises they’ve only ever been able to make to each other in the dark.

They laid together for a moment, staring at the ceiling and attempting to catch their breath. Eventually Mike hopped out of bed and dashed across the hallway. He returned a few moments later with a warm washcloth. He gently cleaned Will’s stomach before taking off his own jeans and underwear and doing them same. He grabbed a pair of old gym shorts from Will’s dresser before sliding back into bed with him.

The two made their way under the comforter silently. 

“Will?” Mike turned to his best friend (and lover now?) and propped his head up on his fist. Will had an arm across his eyes and had yet to look at him. “Will, where are you right now?”

Mike was trying to tamp down the anxiety that was climbing up his throat. Will was doing his best to keep from crying. There was no way for him to explain to Mike the emotions that were coursing through him at the moment.

He gently wrapped his hand around his wrist and slowly urged it away from his face. “There you go. There’s my best friend.”

“Best friends? Still?”

Will realized in that moment that the thing he’d been fearing since the day he’d sent the letter was that he was going to ruin things between the two of them. That the relationship he’d come to rely on since he was in kindergarten would disappear if he one day made his feelings clear. And here he was, after the greatest orgasm of his life, with the boy he’d been in love with for the whole of his life, still calling him his best friend. It was almost too much for him to take.

Mike smiled down at him, “Of course we’re still best friends. We’ll always be best friends. Even if now we can do stuff like this.” He placed a quick but loving kiss on his lips before pulling back slightly, just enough to look into his eye, “You don’t ever have to doubt that, okay?”

And despite Will’s best efforts, a tear still managed to escape. Mike kissed it away quickly and held Will’s face in his hands as he whispered back,

“Promise?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all so much for reading! Please let me know what you thought and whether I should take these two somewhere else next (I'm not gonna act like I don't live a little for the validation lol)
> 
> Also: I'm back on Tumblr! You can find me at usingallyourlighters (and feel free to send prompts!)


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